Apple of the Eyes
by fallingthephobia
Summary: Because Sora didn't like Kairi anymore-- because he liked men. Because he had always been the apple of Riku's eyes... sorariku


**Birthday three-shot for kniferomance.  
**_And I will only love through the differences between you and I._

"_I... Can't go back there and face them after this, Sora." Darkness rooted and corrupted my heart, like a sickness that could never be cured—could never be gone._

"_Sure you can! We'll do it together, okay?" The cerulean skies disappeared behind the happiness._

_A smile; "...okay."_

_**In you and I, there's a new light.**_

"_Sora!" She waved._

"_...W-we're back." It's so hard to discern the suspense from the immense euphoria and longing._

_**Where old sparks begin to fade away.**_

"_I...I've been gone for a year. What will my parents say?" Anxiety._

_Support, "we'll do it together, Sora. Remember your promise." I remembered for him._

"_Yeah, let's do it—together!" A strong heart and a brave will._

_**And new ones start to ignite.**_

"_Returning...to a set path shouldn't be too hard, right Kairi?" The cerulean skies looked large and innocent. _

"_It might be a little rough at first, but we'll all manage. Through and through, we can do it!" Her encouragement was always both appreciated and not needed._

"_Thanks, Kai.... Hey, Riku, you okay?" His questions had always been welcomed._

"_...Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just contemplating, that's all. You needn't worry, Sora." My thoughts are my own._

"_You're my best friend, of course I'm going to worry." ...But I can share them with him, too._

_**Moving on to another new day.**_

Readjusting back to his old life had been rather harder than Riku Takahashi had expected. The conversion from light to dark had been the easiest journey the boy had made in all of his years. All he needed was to be selfish, to want, to need, and to demand something. His heart would eventually fade from the roseate color it naturally was to the dark, indescribable black color of the darkness. Riku had to simply want, to...sin.

Coming out of the darkness he had thought to be the toughest of them all. The light burned him. It struck the cornea of his eyes, the irises shrinking behind the wideness of the pupils. It was too bright, too forceful, and while he was nearly blinded, that wasn't the only bad part. Unnaturally pallor flesh had burned. Seared scars of the light decorated his skin, tainting it the rich color that was thought to be a beach tan. After feeling the first few seconds of the burning flesh, the hardest part had to be staying in it long enough for redemption.

The journey wasn't over for Riku, not by a long shot. Though Sora was finally relieve that his part of it was over, finally ended for the time being, he still had so much more to face. He had to face Sora, to face Kairi, face his island, his parents, and the memories he had nurtured.

Facing familiar, but unknown faces had to be the second hardest. The burn of the light on his skin was almost nonexistent, but that didn't mean the tainting call of the darkness was gone forever. It was like a drug, one that you could never truly leave behind. The siren-like call of it was something that he always heard, something that he would learn to ignore or live with. Finding a substitute seemed like a good, sure alternative to avoid going back.

"Hey, Riku," the young female sat down before him. Kairi Aoyama was his childhood friend, had always been after she moved to the islands a few years ago. She was also one of the very few, other than Sora and people of other worlds, that had a nice grasp on the bigger picture of what he had been through.

Kairi shuffled in her seat, bending over, giving the silver-haired boy a rather nice look into her white shirt at her infamously small breasts. She tucked in her uniform skirt, sitting down and reaching for an eating utensil on her tray. Without anything else to say, she began to eat her lunch provided by the school.

"Hey," he returned.

The girl seemed to be doing pretty well in spite of what she had seen and been through, too.

Kairi was attired in the school's uniform, a blue plaid skirt that fell a couple inches above her knees, and a simple button-down white blouse and cuffs. A striped tie rested above her chest, obscuring the buttons from view. A small, heart-shaped face greeted the world. She had a tiny button-like nose and lips that were rather thin for a female's. Auburn bangs curved around the delicate shape of her brow, and fell backwards to the small of her back. It was as straight as a pin, and for some reason, she always wore it down.

Kairi pushed some of her thin straight hair behind her ear habitually, shoving a spoon into her mouth.

Riku couldn't stop his nerves from shaking. Even as he attempted to eat a small dish of _goma-ae_ in his _bento_, muscles jumped and spasmed in his limbs. Lifting his eating utensils to his mouth was suddenly a rigorous task. The silver-haired teen almost called his meal off when Kairi chose to speak up.

"It's so strange being back, isn't it?" Her voice carried the delicate question with a complete lightness.

"Yeah." Riku forced a laugh from his pale roseate lips. "I had gotten so used worrying about the darkness, you and Sora," he took a deep breath, aquamarine eyes lost to the sight directly in front of him as he reminisced on the darker moments of his life. "Now it's just eating, homework, and my hair." The both of them shared a chortle. As Kairi had seen the other day, Riku had been worrying about his hair. Stress was causing it to serrate from the roots much faster than normal, and the teen had had an absolute fit when he saw how split the roots were. A trip to the salon for some layering had made him less verbal about it.

Still, there were some problems with adjusting back to normal life. For example, Sora hadn't gone to school that day. As a joke courtesy of Tidus had shown, the Keyblade would materialize in the hand of its master at any given moment when his nerves were on the fritz. In that case scenario, Sora had been scared until the pallor flesh of his face matched the sclera of his eyes. Anxiety had it also jumping into place of Sora's hands, the nervousness and fear of being back on his home island, with naught a third journey yet, but it left him afraid to leave his own room. While the panicked look was adorable, it left both friends to worry.

_Adorable...?_ Argent brows furrowed. Beryl occularies hardened to resemble the stone's glossy surface. Sora and adorable in the same sentence—shouldn't that have been impossible for a normal male teen's thoughts?

Two steps forward, three steps back. Again, Riku asked himself; _"Am I normal?"_

He found himself standing out in the blaring summer sun, a thin streak of wood keeping him afloat in the golden grains. A school bag thrown over the shoulder of his white uniform shirt, Riku waited patiently for the door to open. When it finally did, circumspect blue eyes peered out.

"Oh, it's only you, Riku," the maturing voice of the young teen spoke, relieved. The mahogany door fell backwards with a bright light not too far behind. There Sora stood, one hand behind his back, and the other scratching at the base of his neck. Unruly and natural brunet spikes were in disarray, hinting that the boy had probably just been reclining some place. Purple bags lined under sapphire eyes, giving way to sunken cheeks and a sheepish, sickly pale smile.

"Expecting someone else?" Riku queried, almost teasing. Sora's grin melted into a tired, seemingly forced smile. He stepped out of the way of the doorway to allow Riku entrance.

"Yeah, but my parents won't be back for a while—shouldn't." Sora corrected himself at the last second, his brows drawing together to show some kind of discombobulation. Distant eyes glared at the floor.

"Anyway," Riku spoke, meandering through the house. Sora closed the door and followed behind like a lost puppy. The older of the two traced familiar footsteps into the kitchen. He tossed the brown school bag onto the nearby island. "I came by to help with school."

Sora opened his mouth to protest.

Riku shook his head, argent locks of hair floating into view, "Kairi's orders."

The brunet hung his head low. His consented murmur, desponded and almost inaudible, revealed his unwilling attitude. Sora tried for his best pout, lower lip jutting out and blue eyes becoming wide, innocent, and doe-like.

Riku felt overjoyed to hear his own melodious laughter so full of life; genuine. "But," he interjected. Sauntering over to the ice box, he reached atop it for the yellow fruit.

Sora watched him, helplessly a witness to the sight of Riku's muscles twitching beneath the tight uniform. Mercury hair framed his face in one single wave. Bangs framed a round, pale face and verdigris eyes. The more Sora stared, the more he noticed a certain semblance between Riku's newly acquired haircut and Kairi's own. Except Riku's was longer, thicker, and much more appealing to the eyes.

The older boy accomplished stealing a banana from his friend, returning to sit at a stool by the kitchen island.

"But what?" Sora encouraged his friend to continue.

"But," Riku reiterated with emphasis. He peeled off the banana peel, taking a bite of the sweet topical fruit. A sly, almost devilish smirk twisted at his lips. "I won't tell if you won't."

Sora's lips flipped into a smile. He, too, got himself a banana. Best friends passed the minutes in silence, occupied with the squeaking of revolving stools and heartbeats. As soon as they disposed of the peels, Sora uttered something that caught Riku off guard.

"I don't think I like Kairi anymore."

Riku cast the brunet a puzzled look.

"I mean, she's still really close to my heart, but..." Sora bit at his lower lip. "You know how I had this huge crush on her?"

The silver-haired teen nodded.

"Well," Sora continued. "I don't, not anymore." The look in his cerulean eyes were so hard and truthful. The brunet was being completely honest to Riku, as a best friend, and as a holder of secrets. It reminded Riku of a time when he had said something almost exactly mirroring Sora's words.

_To finally be home on Destiny Islands... It was a thrill only known to travelers. Travelers who had been so far away from home and couldn't go back. Darkness—Riku promised himself to never return to it. Never again would he stare at everlasting light for the damnation of eternity, not after seeing the wondrous sunsets he had been missing through fresh eyes._

_The sight of them had become one of his most treasured memories. The way the orange sky glittered mauve, rose, azure, and even vermilion as the sun fell behind the horizon. Clear waters sparkled with an ethereal quality. Two best friends perched themselves on a small island, backs against the infamous paopu tree. _

"_Y'know," Riku started. He pulled himself up onto the crooked trunk, his turquoise eyes reflected orange hues from the sun._

_Sora switched his azure eyes to gaze upon him._

"_I don't love Kairi like I thought I did," he said. Riku's eyes appeared distant, staring at nothing in particular. Sora was confused._

"_Whaddya mean?" he questioned. His eyebrows furrowed to show such a thing. Sapphire occularies gave him an unwavering look, demanding an answer. Not that he couldn't be happier with the lack of competition, but the statement had been quite unexpected._

"_I mean that I realized if I truly loved her, then I wouldn't have had any mercy on you." Riku finished, offering a smirk to his best friend. His beryl eyes challenged the boy to make a come back at him._

_It took Sora a moment to understand the joke. "Hey!" he exclaimed, raising his right arm to playfully punch his friend's arm. Riku's body tensed as he leaned away, but he still grinned and chortled from the light, joking action._

"_I so beat you, fair and square!" _

_Riku shoved the boy back, almost causing the Keyblade wielder to topple over into the golden sand. His arms flailed madly in the air, clutching at the trunk of the paopu tree. Light-hearted laughter filled the air, sounds caressing against both corporeal forms intimately._

"_Don't go getting a big head now, Sora," Riku teased. Sora scowled, pushing himself off the tree. His action was miscalculated, resulting in the younger boy's body to topple into the other's. The two rolled through the sand, arms reaching to grasp at each other, playfully throwing punches and shoves. Golden grains of sand clung to their tawny flesh._

_Sora wrapped his hands around the slim biceps of Riku's arm, clutching and forcing them to harshly collide with the ground beneath them. "And you're just a sore loser!"_

There was a twitch on Sora's abnormally pale visage. It was one of those that made the younger teen look almost as if he were battling a thought inside of him, one that made him want to speak about something, but the mere thought of it made him uncomfortable. He let out a heavy sigh, bouncing his fisted hand off the top of the tiled island with a quick and unexpected movement. Riku's nerves jumped in his body again. It made him feel foolish to think the boy was going to do something to him.

Azure eyes faced the window, taking a gander outside before returning onto the sight of his hand. "Riku... Do you want to go out on the island? Like old times?" A plea resonated in the irises of his eyes, and Riku found himself unable to resist him.

They made their way out of the house, shoe-clad feet stumbling through the thick sand of the near beach, the bright midday sun over their heads. It was obvious that Sora hadn't been out in a while, as his flesh seemed to gain a rich shading, making him appear less ill and more normal.

Perfectly clear ocean water greeted them, enabling an almost perfect mirror image of their looks to reflect back at them. An unblemished shimmering on their forms made their reflections glow. Walking along at a leisurely pace made them reminisce about the old times, before the Keyblade, the darkness, and the Heartless. When things had been so much more simple and easier to comprehend.

Riku inhaled before speaking, "What sparked the sudden need to take a walk?"

Sora's hands visibly fidgeted. "I wanted to tell you something," he said.

Riku made an o shape with his mouth, nodding his head. He waited patiently for his companion to speak, but received nothing in response for several, silent minutes. They continued to walk, reaching the end point of the beach before making a U-turn and continuing passed their previous footprints in the sand.

"So-" Riku found himself cut off.

"Okay, okay, there's a reason why I don't like Kairi anymore," Sora confessed, beginning the very opening of his thought. He bit at his lower lip again, not daring to look his friend in the eye. There was something suddenly awkward between the two of them, and Riku didn't know what it was. He wanted to know so badly what it was to make the boy seem so uncomfortable like that.

Riku didn't say anything, silently encouraging his friend to say it at his own pace and his own time.

A heavy sigh followed by two words answered his question; "I'm gay."

Aquamarine occularies widened, taking in the full meaning and idea behind such a statement. It took him a moment to fully understand it, the whole minute seeming like a lifetime to the other party member.

And Riku was gone.

"RIKU, GET YOUR LILY-WHITE ASS DOWN HERE _NOW_!"

The said boy was disturbed that anyone knew the color of his precious bottom, but out of all the people that could know, his mother would know that best. After all, she did carry him for nine months and some odd days, had clothed and fed him since he was born, and even changed and cleaned his lily-white derriere for some odd number of years. (Yes, Riku was proudly potty trained at age four!)

Though very much obligated to his mother's request—demand, mind you—he set aside his school books and made his way out of his room, meandering downstairs to talk to the Xanthippe that had given birth to him. The woman was hastily shoving things aside in the kitchen area, littering various objects on the pearlescent linoleum floor. Her hands made several movements to clutch at her white hair—not from age, much to the boy's disdain—in some sort of frustration. She slammed the cabinet door shut, whipping around in one solid, macabre and graceful movement.

"RIK-" she stopped dead in her tracks, mouth open in the shape of an o, staring at the boy as if she had never seen him before. It took her a moment to regain her composure, her lips pressing together as she turned around to continue with whatever her task was.

Riku sighed to himself, running fingers through his strangely silken hair. He muttered foul curses under his breath about the woman. After all, it wasn't his fault she had been recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, was it? No. It was hers for being so darn old.

"Old hag probably forgot what I look like," he muttered, folding arms across his flat chest and tapping a foot impatiently.

"What was that!?" the old woman spun around again, her aquamarine occularies showing a brutal storm on the very surface, reflecting her turmoil within. The boy didn't doubt it, and really wouldn't blame her, if she was plotting his brutal murder. A shudder forced its way between Riku's shoulder blades, quaking his spine with such a quick, unwanted tremor. His own mother scared the crap out of him at times.

And so the playing with the mind began, as Riku tied to make his mother forget about what had just happened. "You called me down here, Xanthippe?" he reminded the woman, his tone full of some emotion ridiculing her, along with her new, soon-to-be infamed "pet name". If things went well, the woman would just forget what had just happened and continue with whatever.

"Ah, yes," the plump woman murmured thoughtfully. Point for Riku Takahashi. "There's a nice young woman out there asking for you—I'd ask if she was your girlfriend, but she seems to angry at you."

Riku raised an eyebrow, but made his quick exit away from the old hag as soon as he possibly could.

"And I am not an old hag! I am a beautiful young woman!" Oh dear gods, not this again...

As the boy continued to walk through the maze of a house, he rolled his eyes and childishly imitated the words he knew his mother would say next: "Oh, my figure! Where has my beautifully voluptuous figure gone to? Ruki, you bastard child!"

Great, she'd gotten his name wrong. Again.

The living room surrounded him with a single step, intricately vintage furniture placed in elegant intervals along the room. Among the love sofa, the boy spotted his female friend. She sat on the edge of the seat, knees locked together as she shifted uneasily. Riku wasn't the only person that couldn't stand being around his mother. Kairi had a hard time, too. She was always quiet and thinking of what to say before she said it. She never took a heartless tone with her, unlike what her own son did. The girl's hands were folded in her lap. She stared at them with her sapphire eyes, biting down on her lower lip.

"Yeah?" he greeted, voice soft and gruff all at once. It was obvious he was agitated, annoyed, and irritated on so many different levels, but he was trying to act calm and collected around his friend.

As soon as the female's eyes landed on them, the shrunken look reversed itself as a raging blue fire seemed to make her eyes glow, her cheeks puffing out and her lips twisting into a frown. Kairi snatched his hand from his side, dragging him out of his own house. She huffed and puffed, blowing the door away as the two conspicuously made their exit from the house.

The door slammed behind them, but Kairi continued in her mental, unsaid tirade to drag her older friend along with her, a breeze blowing by and ruining her angered appearance by catching some of her auburn hair. Riku pulled back his hand, planting his feet firmly on the sidewalk before the grainy gold, telling her that he wasn't moving until he knew what the hell had her so angry.

Kairi whipped around, ejaculating words from her rosebud mouth before Riku was even ready to comprehend human speech. "What the hell happened!?" Kairi flailed her arms about, adding emphasis to her obviously angry statement before allowing them to settle at her hips.

"What?" Riku asked, taken aback by her words.

"Don't 'what?' me! I went over to Sora's house to see if you were really helping him, and he's bawling his eyes out!"

The form of the older, male teen stumbled backwards with another gust of wind, verdigris eyes wide with shock and revelation.

Sora was crying...?

The next minute went by in silence. It was a torturous minute that was very much like the one that had happened a few hours earlier when Riku was processing words into his mind. Instead, he was trying to figure out why Kairi was so angry at him for the fact that Sora was crying. As far as he knew-

Oh. It was _his_ fault. (Moments like those made Riku wonder if Alzheimer's was hereditary.)

"Kairi, I don't-" Riku started.

"I don't get it! You two are the best of friends, closer than I've ever been with the two of you, and now he's crying, and you're not there? What gives?" she asked, her intonation mellowing out. Sapphire, almond-shaped eyes narrowed at him, exploiting her thoughts on the whole thing. Then, they widened a fraction. "Unless... he told you."

Riku assumed what that could mean, "yeah-"

"Then what's the problem?" she raised her voice again, making violent gesticulations in the process. "I don't like the idea of Sora, of all people, being like _that_, but he's my friend. I'm going to be there for him. Why can't you do that? Have you gotten so used to running?" Kairi's voice had dipped down again, coming out as an almost whisper by the time she reached the end of her tirade.

"N-no- !"

"Then what is it? Are you _homophobic_?" she continued. Riku blinked at her rather blunt statement, as she couldn't even mention the fact the boy, the embodiment of all innocence and purity, was gay. It was good they were at least on the same page. "Are you afraid he's _attracte_d to you?"

Riku had heard enough. "Kairi!"

"What?" the brunette snapped.

"I'm sorry that I ran away from him, and you're right—maybe I am used to running," Riku began, biting the inside of his cheek. "But..." he paused, eyes trailing down the smooth cracks in the cement beneath him, feet shifting uneasily. "I just need some time to think."

Kairi let out a short chortle, on that was bittersweet and pained Riku to hear. From the way her attitude didn't seem to hold anything back, he could only estimate the damage he had done to the boy. Riku couldn't hold back his wince anymore.

"What is there to think about?" the brunette demanded.

"There's a lot to think about—this affects me more than I would like to admit," Riku stated, exasperated. Kairi opened her mouth to speak, but the argent-haired teen raised both of his hands up. Puzzled, she closed her mouth. Riku waved his hands, giving the white flag and ending their argument. "This conversation is _done_," he said, forcing the emphasis on the last word. Turning on his heel, Riku made his way back to his house. He would much rather listen to the Xanthippe than that.

"There you go again—you're running!"

Those words cut him deeper and deeper each time he heard them.

Three days later, and Riku was still tearing apart the conversation in his mind. He realized that it was a good thing that he didn't say very much at all, as he might've gotten carried away at the mouth. Kairi was being abrasive and outright accusing of him. Riku had a lot of things to think about. She made it sound like Sora was the only one that mattered. Maybe she was implying something or other.

Whatever the matter was, his thoughts eventually carried him back to the darkness. Kairi just didn't understand things the way he did. One little thing suddenly had so much more meaning to it. His personal attachment and involvement with it had been the result of one thing.

Sora.

There had been a lot of things that Riku did, and one way or another, he could always relate things back to Sora somehow. It disturbed him a tad bit at the thought, but he wasn't getting too far along with completing said thought. His mother had just turned on some rather strange western music that he insisted was for old folks (which made sense with his mother), and it was loud. He found himself groaning, the words of the songs drifting in and out of his mind. It ruined his thoughts, making him get side-tracked and just losing it completely. Huffing, the boy rolled over in the cottony sheets of his bed, throwing a pillow over his silver strands of hair in a desperate attempt to muffle the noise.

Riku _needed_ to think.

"RIKU, TURN DOWN THAT DAMN HEAD-BANGING SHIT!"

Riku's fingers clutched tighter to the pillow, pressing down against his ears. Desperately, the teen whined, eyes squinting shut as if he believed that not seeing it would make it all stop. It didn't. Instead, the noise continued with a new force, penetrating through the thick cotton that made up his pillow. He felt like crying and screaming, just letting loose with the hysterics until he got everything off his chest. But, instead, sanity was needed at the moment. Sanity dictated that he needed some sleep, and sleep he would get. Zeus only knew how much he needed it...

Riku decided to skip school the following day. Returning to school after what had happened wasn't right on the top of his to do list, not anywhere near it either. Since Sora was even more than likely to me an emotional wreck, he probably wouldn't be heading to school any time soon, either. With that calculation, Riku figured that he could avoid his mother and Kairi, while straightening things out with Sora. He had done a countless amount of things for the brunet, and one little thing wasn't going to destroy that.

As he hopped out of bed that morning, eagerly changing from his sleeping wear to his normal, "play" clothes, he heard his father's voice for the first time in a whole week. The man was mumbling about something or other to Xanthippe—the nickname Riku had decided was so much better than Xanthippe for his mother. He sounded tired, despite the fact his words were muffled and hardly audible.

"Good morning, Izanami dear." Riku barely made out the statement before stark silence followed.

As Riku made his way into the dining room to greet his father, he saw his rather plump mother with a not-so-nice look on her face. It was nearly purple with anger, and her expression was contorted to display such a thing. Susanou Takahashi, on the other hand, looked positively terrified.

"Izanami!?" the old hag reiterated. She threw her arms into the air, sputtering nonsensical words in the air before continuing in coherency. "Who the _hell_ is Izanami!?" Slamming her closed fist on the table, Xanthippe continued to scream obscenities at the man. He looked dead tired and terrified, dark violet bags lining under his eyes, cheeks so gaunt and flesh so pallor. Attired in his typical blue suit, the police officer looked completely trashed and ready to crap himself.

"Dear-" he tried.

"Are you having an affair?" Xanthippe screeched.

"No, of course not!" Susanou challenged the woman.

"Then who the hell is Izanami!?" she demanded, raising her meaty fists into the air.

"Great," Riku muttered, loud enough for the room to fall silent again. "Xanthippe forgot her own name." He yawned unceremoniously, passing between his parents and taking a seat. He wanted to see this so badly.

Xanthippe quickly pointed her finger at her own son. "Is this Izanami?"

"What!?" Susanou exclaimed.

"I knew it!" The old hag fell into a fit of piteous sobbing, clutching to the dining table for her poor, pathetic life. "You _are_ having an affair—and this mistress of yours is barely ten!" Raising her hand into the air, she began to hit her husband repeatedly, chiding him and telling him that he could do so much better than some curveless child. She mentioned her own voluptuousness again, but fell silent quickly after, her eyes blanking out as if she were forgetting what had just happened. Susanou looked relieved. Riku, on the other hand, was almost ready to laugh his poor little arse off.

"Oh, welcome home, dear!" she chirped.

"Morning," he muttered back.

"Oh, guess what?!" she bounced excitedly in her spot, clapping her hands together. "The baby kicked today—even if it was my kidney—but he kicked!"

Talk about a blast to the past.

Riku erupted into a fit of mirth, throwing his head back as solid strands of mercury blinded his vision.

Xanthippe turned to him, "oh, I'm sorry dear, we don't have any money to buy your girl scout cookies!"

Riku decided that he should make his leave then. He removed himself from the stiff oak chair, nearly rolling around on the ground with his laughter, struggling to make a decent exit out of his own home.

"Goodbye my little girl scout! Sell plenty of cookies for mommy!"

"What do you want?" Sora snapped, holding the door open with one of his arms. His cerulean eyes were narrowed so much that only a fine line of the rich color greeted him among the unusually pallor complexion, the redness of his puffy cheeks only enhancing it. Baggy clothes adorned his figure, the cottony pants barely staying up upon the boy's skinny waist. His T-shirt fell around his torso like a billowing blanket, leaving a large hole for some of his pale skin to show through at the neck. To be blunt, it appeared as if the boy had been starving himself, losing some significant amount of weight while bawling his eyes out in the process.

Riku suddenly felt an immense amount of self-loathing at that moment, seeing how much Sora looked like shit and he himself looked like he just walked out of a fashion magazine. (Well, compared to the Keyblade wielder, that is.)

"I want to...talk," Riku murmured, swallowing hard enough that the back of his throat burned.

Sora rolled his eyes, leaning against the doorway. "What is there to talk about?" he returned just as quietly. Eyes no longer narrowed, he was gazing at his friend with a sort of rawness that made Riku's sclera sting with fresh tears.

"A lot."

Sora's scowl returned, and he quickly removed himself from his perch against the door. He could forgive his friend and allow him entrance to his home in a split second, a solemn frown upon his lips. Eager eyes showed that he was both longing and dreading this talk with Riku. Said teen accepted the gesture, entering the domicile with a simple movement. He pressed passed the brunet, taking in the view of the house that he had known almost all of his life as a second home. At that moment, it was a war zone—no man's land. Metaphorical mines were planted in the carpeting, waiting for either of the two to step upon them and set them off. Pausing, as if to discern the hidden bombs, Riku waited for his companion to take the lead.

Sora offered Riku a weary smile. He wanted to talk, Riku understood that. Sora had been hoping that they would talk about it. At that moment, they had the chance. The smile also revealed how terrified that the boy was to hear what Riku was going to say.

"Well?"

"I'm sorry."

The two males looked at each other, only to find that they had spoken simultaneously. Sora's hardened features melted away as soon as he processed the words Riku had said, the color seeming to return to his pallor flesh. Expressions seemed to brighten with their moods. Riku for feeling better that he got that off his chest, and Sora for getting the opposite of what he had feared—expected considering Riku's prior reactions.

"Uh...thanks." Sora smiled.

Riku looked away, sighing heavily before looking back into blue eyes. "I talked to Kairi a while back," he began. Shifting, his uneasiness was apparent. "She said some things," he stated.

Sora frowned. "Like what?"

Riku remembered why he and Sora had been friends for such a long time, because they could easily talk to each other about almost everything. "It...doesn't matter," he stated. Much to either of their surprise and reluctance, Sora made no movement to indicate that he was or wasn't listening. He was just there, near his friend. That was all that the argent-haired male needed.

"I'm sorry," he reiterated.

"Don't be," Sora returned. "It's normal—I think—for you to have reacted like that."

"Yeah," Riku laughed uneasily. "Who'd expect the bearer of the Keyblade, one who is pure of heart, to do something that at least half of society considers taboo?" Sora laughed, a genuine sound that was both pleasant and unpleasant to hear. It said that the tension in the room had lessened greatly. In fact, the two of them found themselves meandering around the younger's household, eventually traipsing up the stairs with gentle conversations about things that had happened long ago. The bursts of mirth were no longer forced, but expelled without thought or fear of the other. It was why they were best friends, as their arguments never lasted for too long, and never took away from their lives. It was a minor pebble in the road of that they stomped down together before continuing onwards.

Pushing through the sliding door, the two boys found themselves taking their familiar seats in Sora's bedroom. Sora on his own bed, bouncing upon the thick, soft mattress; Riku in a stool near the closet, spinning in it. He let out a soft "wee" noise before clearing his throat and settling down. Riku bushed some of his silver hair over his shoulder and pretended nothing had happened.

A brilliant, blinding white light filled in the room for a split second, some sound of something being forcefully pulled from inside an unseen force. As soon as it had come, it was gone. In it's place was a giant key, tawny fingers wrapping around the golden handle which melted into mercury. A fine crown-shaped thing formed in between the groves of the weapon, signifying its importance as the Weapon of Light: the Keyblade.

It took Sora one look between the weapon and his friend to fall into a fit of guffaws. He threw his chocolate spikes backwards, mouth making a gaping whole in his face spewing the laughter from between pale cherry lips. "I can't believe you people believed that," he chuckled. Riku's visage twisted into a confused expression.

"'Keyblade summoning itself upon my distress'," he mocked jovially. "I thought you, of all people, should know how well I can control the Keyblade."

Cerulean and aquamarine occularies passed over the weapon, watching the light from the bulb above reflect off of it, the mouse-shaped key chain jingling with each minute movement. It took Riku a moment to finally guess at what his younger friend was hinting at, but it definitely hit him. Almost like a big smack on the side of the head with a club called "common sense."

"Sora, you were skipping school!" Riku accused. Inside, he felt a bit hurt that his friend backed out on their promise to face it together.

"Yeah, so?" he ginned, eyes shining with mischief. "At least you faced everyone—on your own, to boot."

Common sense smacked him on the back of the head, harder that time. Everything made sense at least. Sora repeatedly summoned the Keyblade as part of some of his master plan to help Riku. He made his best friend face everyone alone, just to prove that he could do it. Concise and very, in some strange way, good of him. Riku had almost backed out. Sora just made sure he hadn't. Clever.

Riku spun around on the stool once more, looking around sheepishly as he settled back into his still position. A sudden thought of curiosity had befallen him, making him yearn to ask his friend questions. Questions he knew that his friend had the answer for. There was more than one reason why Riku had run away when Sora confessed his sexuality to him.

"Hey, Sora," he began uneasily. Said boy straightened up, pulling away from his bottle of water. He struggled to catch the clear dribble with the palm of his hand.

"Yeah?"

"How did you...know?" For some reason, Riku thought he it would be rude or insensitive of him to ask it bluntly.

"Know what?" he queried. "That I'm gay?"

"Yeah."

"Oh!" Sora grinned, taking another swig from his bottle. "I just woke up one morning and randomly decided that I was gay." He laughed.

Riku gave him an incredulous look, one that bordered on him actually believing the boy. Instead, the Keyblade wielder started laughing again, much to his surprise. "It wasn't like that at all. I just kind of started noticing things about myself that weren't exactly normal." Sora paused, twisting the corners of his lips upwards in thought.

Riku listened to his words intently, wanting to ask exactly what Sora meant by those words. However, he felt that he would be rude or too prying to ask that kind of information from his best friend. But, gods, did he ever really want to know.

"And," Sora continued, "it's kind of hard to deny that you're _that way_ when-" Sora cut himself off, frowning a bit. It seemed as if he didn't really want to talk about it, or maybe he was just displeased with something he had said. Had something come out wrong? "Well, the only way I can think of saying it is that when I hugged Kairi one day, I noticed something. She was soft."

Sora rolled his eyes at the questionable, yet dirty implying look that Riku had given him. "Not like that!" Screwing the cap onto his water bottle, he promptly chucked it at his friend's head. Riku leaned over to the side, eyes wide when he heard it collide with the white closet door behind him.

"I mean that she was _too_ soft. I felt like I was going to fall in and be smothered in a giant pool of cotton," Sora made a face before continuing. "It wasn't comfortable. And I think I offended her when I pulled away so abruptly."

Riku laughed, finding some sort of amusement in the way that Sora's face had scrunched up, the way his voice came out when he was describing how uncomfortably soft their female companion was. An interesting thought indeed to befall a man. And, in some way, Riku agreed that it was hard to be straight and think that a woman was uncomfortably delicate and dainty at the same time. Most men could say some other things about developing women—supple, round, smooth, perfect, erotic, sensitive—and soft, too soft, was not among that list.

"Sora," Riku called out.

"Yeah?"

"That sounded odd,"

Sora mad a noise of displeasure, "well, you know what I mean!"

"Yeah, I _think_ I get it," Riku teased.

Growling, the younger brunet reached for one of his pillows, adding that to the growing pile of things in front of his closet door that he had thrown at Riku's head. Or, rather, attempted to. Another lean to the side effectively caused that attempt to fail. Cottony fabric brushed against the elder's arm.

"You're such a good friend," Sora commented sarcastically.

"Yeah," the silver-haired teen returned. "I know I am."

And they continued like that for several more hours on end. Riku had moved from his spinning stool and sat on the floor, before his best friend. They talked. They laughed. They joked. They played games. They talked some more. It was like old times between the two of them. Almost as if the Keyblade never existed. No Donald. No Goofy. No Kingdom Hearts. No purity.

Nothing but the simple joys of the past. The following day they would-

Darkness crept in through the window, an evanescing orange in the skies setting off Riku's internal curfew. He cursed, relinquishing his winning streak in the game they had been playing. Stretching his arms over his head, he offered a relaxing sigh when he felt joints pop and release.

"I'd better get home to Xanthippe," he murmured, crestfallen.

"Xanthippe?" Sora was unaware of his friend's new nickname for his mother.

"That woman who dares to claim she gave birth to me," Riku elaborated, allowing himself to join in another merry chorus of laughter before he made his leave.

_And I will only love through the differences between you and I.  
Where old sparks begin to fade away and there is a shining new light..._


End file.
